The smash hit RollerCoaster Tycoon, published by Hasbro Interactive and developed by Microprose is back with a second addition, Loopy Landscapes. The first addition to the game, known as Corkscrew Follies is included with this package. Loopy Landscapes adds many new rides, and features to RollerCoaster Tycoon, enough to keep the average RollerCoaster Tycoon fan playing for hours on end.

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes contains 30 all-new scenarios with all new objectives and targets to meet. Players who defeated all of the original and Corkscrew Follies scenarios will be happy to know of several new objectives to complete, and shorter time expectations to complete them in. The scenarios in RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes is where the game comes to life. In one scenario, you are given five incomplete roller coasters inside a mountain, and you are required to finish each with a rating of 6.00 or higher. In another scenario, you must keep the park rating above a specific level or you will lose. New features such as the customization of path bridges and more landscape textures allow players to customize their park down to the finest details, hopefully making a better experience for the guests.

Many new rides have been included in RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes, some of which include all new roller coaster types, as well as many new thrill and gentle rides. Players will have an opportunity to try out some all-new shops and stalls, as well as hire new entertainers. If guest's become hungry for some donuts or want to buy a T-shirt, then they can do so with these new shops.

The original game contained a standard entrance and exit for every station, and roller coasters were forced to use a standard docking platform. With the new addition to Loopy Landscapes, players have the option of which docking platforms to use, and customize the rides to their full extent. Players now have more control over the look of the rides, as they can be painted piece by piece, something which was added in the earlier expansion pack Corkscrew follies. More has been added to this in Loopy Landscapes, and basically the whole ride can be modified and changed to suit your parks color scheme.

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes offers several new outdoor themes and seasons. Want to built a park in a winter setting, with the ground covered in snow and icy breezes in the air? How about setting up your park with a medieval theme? Loopy Landscapes allows players to do this, with its selection of multiple landscapes. The weather can change dramatically in your park in a very short period of time. One minute the sky is clear, and the next the thunderstorms are scaring visitors out of their minds. Visitors will rarely ride uncovered rides such as roller coasters in the rain, so just hope it doesn't rain too often.

Many little features have been included in RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes, which greatly improve the overall functionality of the game. One of these features is the price modifier. In the original game, players had to modify every shops price manually for the same item, which was a tedious task if you wanted to lower or raise the price of a specific item . With this new feature, players can modify the price of all the same item within a park. This saves a ton of time, and makes the game more enjoyable overall.

Ride construction in RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes is very similar to that of its predecessors. With an excellent ride construction design menu, even the most inexperienced players can build extraordinary roller coasters in minutes. The more experienced player can spend hours developing a roller coaster, planning every curve and bend in the track, ultimately concluding with the coaster arriving back at the station. Other rides are easy to implement, as players are only required to find a suitable location and build an entrance and exit for the ride. Although ride construction is easy, the development of the parks can become incredibly challenging.

Construction of parks is easy if they are small, but as they grow larger with more rides and visitors, they can become extremely complex messes, which are difficult to navigate and expand. A good park design is critical in this game, and this skill is something which can only be acquired through experience. If your park becomes too complex, visitors will become lost in the maze of paths, and your park rating will drop significantly.

The graphics in RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes are the same as in the original version of the game, with a few improvements with regards to the ease of viewing different, possibly overlapping areas. Players now have the option of temporarily removing one face of the landscape to give them a better view while constructing underground rides. Also, players now have the ability to temporarily hide several other "land-based" items, such as paths, that may be obstructing the view of the area that's under construction. All of these new tools definitely go a long way to aid the player in the construction of their park.

One of the best aspects of RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes is that it runs very well on low-end systems. We have tested this title on a Pentium 100 with 16 Megabytes of RAM, and the game ran almost as well as it does on high-end machines. This was confirmed when we did another test on a Pentium III 500 with 128 Megabytes of RAM. Gameplay was somewhat better on the faster machine, but the graphics were about the same.

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes improves the original version of the game in almost every way. It is a perfect addition to the game, and for anyone who enjoyed the original, we highly recommend this add-on.